“I’M going to chop you up into f****** pieces,” were the words of a man threatening his former partner while she was at work.

The threat came after Chike Henderson had attacked his ex-partner at her home in Reading by pushing her onto the stairs twice on July 11 last year.

What followed was a period of stalking in which the 30-year-old called his ex-partner hundreds of times and left threatening messages.

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After being remanded in custody since April 5 this year, Henderson was released from prison on Thursday (December 7) after being handed a 16-month prison as he had already served half that time and will now spend the remaining eight months on licence.

Opening the case at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, barrister Emma Fielding said that at 10.20pm on July 11 last year, Henderson had knocked on the door of his partner’s home.

She told him that the two children they share together were in bed and advised him to go home.

“He acted violently to this,” said Ms Fielding. “He forced his way into the house and knocked her onto the stairs and threatened to chop her head off.”

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The court heard he pushed her onto the stairs a second time and she suffered from bruising on her back.

Neighbours heard the incident and Henderson was removed from the property, but not before he threatened the neighbours, claiming he would ‘f*** up’ their house.

Henderson then called his former partner multiple times, including over 150 calls between October 1 and 2 last year and 17 calls within half an hour on October 4.

He called on a withheld number and when she did answer the phone he was ‘aggressive towards her’, including making one threat to ‘chop her into tiny f****** pieces’.

In December and January, he would show up uninvited to her home before he was arrested in April this year after jumping out of a bush when she arrived home.

The court heart that Henderson had no defence barrister and was happy to proceed to sentencing without representation due to the amount of time he had spent in custody.

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Sentencing Henderson, of Russell Street, Reading, Judge Neil Millard also handed the 30-year-old a 10-year restraining order not to contact his former partner except through the courts.

Henderson commented that he though the restraining order was ‘extreme’ but Judge Millard pointed out he could still contact his children.